"How is it going with all the new shops?" Harry asked Fred as everybody had calmed down a bit.
"Very well, mate! Lee and I have set up Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in all of Eastern Europe now and we'll be heading to Scandinavia next."
Hermione looked at George; luckily he had never shown as much as an inch of interest in leaving his wife behind to go travel Europe with his brother and expand their joke-shop empire.
"Eastern Europe, huh?" Ron said excitedly, "I've heard great things about Romania in particular."
"Oh, Romania is amazing!" Fred said.
"What's best?" Ginny asked excitedly, "The scenery? The food?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of the women," Ron elbowed Fred and gave him a wink to which Fred sent him an uncomfortable smile. Hermione rolled her eyes; it wasn't as if she cared - she just didn't want to listen to a conversation about all the girls that Fred had been romantically involved with over the last years.
"Or maybe the dragons?" Ginny continued, ignoring Ron as well.
"I got to live out a fantastic dare-devil fantasy with Charlie, that's for sure," Fred sent his sister a wink, taking a sip of his butterbeer.
"How long are you in England for?" Harry asked.
"Well, Lee and I figured that a break might be good," Fred shrugged, "and now that we're actually finally home, we might as well stay and have some fun; I wouldn't want to miss out on mum and dad's anniversary either."
"So you'd have to go back eventually?" Ginny looked nervously between Fred and George.
"Ah, don't look at me like that Ginny!" George laughed, "I knew perfectly well what I was going into, saying no to coming along."
"It's just weird seeing you apart from each other," Ginny sent her older brothers a pout before she took a sip of her butterbeer, "We've missed you Fred."
"I've missed you too," Fred sighed, his eyes landing shortly on Hermione before they darted away from her again. "How's England holding up?" he asked, "Have I missed out on anything grand?"
They all looked around the table as if trying to remember if anything out of the ordinary had happened in the last two years, "Same old," Ron eventually shrugged, "Harry and I are busting our asses off, training the new aurors. Ginny's still doing a splendid job as captain for the Holy Head's and Hermione is slowly climbing the corporate ladder."
"Oh! Oh!" Ginny said excitedly, "Hermione had that huge promotion a few months ago!"
"Corporate ladder," Ron repeated under his breath, "it was implied."
"You did?" Fred's eyes landed on Hermione, "Not that I'm surprised of course."
Hermione took a deep breath and answered him in what she hoped was a friendly tone, "yes, I'm junior assistant to the Minister for Magic now."
"Ah, so Percy's old job," he sent her a blinding smile.
"Yes, well, the main difference being that Kingsley actually knows my name."
Fred gave out a hearty laugh, making Hermione's insides squirm uncomfortably.
"So we'll be seeing you as Minister any day now?" He joked.
"I still have a lot to learn," Hermione felt her cheeks growing hot.
"Before you turn thirty probably," Fred smirked.
Hermione felt uncomfortable under his stare. "Will you excuse me for a bit?" she said and edged her way around the table and towards the ladies room.
She splashed some cold water in her face and took a few deep breaths to try and keep her composure. Why was he acting like this all of a sudden? She had been walking around for two years thinking they were mortal enemies, and now he wanted to pretend that everything was back to normal? No way!
As she was angrily drying her hands in a paper towel, a familiar face appeared at the door.
"You can't be out here," she scowled at Fred, "this is the ladies room."
"What are you going to do? Tell on me?" Fred smirked. The light caught something shiny around his neck. Hermione recognised it immediately.
"You really still have that?" she raised an eyebrow at him and pointed to the silver dog-tag around his neck.
"Are you kidding me?" Fred said incredulously, "I love this necklace. I wear it every day." he said and caressed the masculine piece of jewelry with his long fingers, "it's one of my most prised possesions!"
Hermione crossed her arms defiantly. He was too much. "What are you doing here, Fred?"
"I'm not here to stir things up - I promise!" he let go of the dog-tag and held up his hands in a surrendering manner.
"Then why are you attacking me in the ladies room?"
"I've missed you..." he said matter-of-factly with a small shrug, "are you still angry with me?" his face had fallen into serious folds.
"I was angry at first. Now I don't really care about you anymore."
Fred nodded slowly, "do you want me to leave?"
"Yes," Hermione said coldly but even she could hear how unconvincing she sounded.
A small smile was playing at the corners of Fred's mouth, "I can tell you're not being serious, love."
"Stop calling me that!" She spluttered, "You lost the privilege when you left and never contacted me again."
Fred gave out a sigh, "Look, I wanted to, but you were so angry the last time I saw you that I didn't know how you'd react if I suddenly started owling you again. George says that you stopped mentioning me all-together so I knew you were royally pissed for sure. I didn't want to take that away from you. Not when you had every right to be, after all..."
"Then why'd you come here tonight?"
"Angelina's pregnant," Fred sighed.
"What?" Hermione exclaimed, "and you're...?"
"Sod off," Fred gave out a hearty laugh, "Of course not!"
"So George?"
"Yep," Fred nodded slowly, "he's going to tell you guys in a couple of days and he wanted me to be there for it. Please act surprised, okay?"
Hermione sent him a dirty look that made Fred chuckle. Angry with how childish he was acting she scowled, "so you followed me to the ladies room to ruin George's big surprise?"
"Of course not," Fred laughed, "It's just that... Well, Angie and George are constantly talking baby stuff, and insurance, and dying wills - and it kinda made me think about stuff in my life. Unresolved matters and so on."
"And then you thought about me?" Hermione scoffed, "I thought you had already resolved everything between us. That's why you chose to leave. That's what you said anyway."
Fred looked away, and Hermione knew that he was thinking of the same hurtful words that had been playing on repeat in her mind ever since he had yelled them at her two years before. The last words he had spoken to her before he had boarded the train, heading for his new life as a hot-shot business man travelling all over Europe.
"I've tried to not think about that," he said, embarrassment flooding his voice, "those words were a mistake and I regretted everything the moment I had stepped onto the train. But by then I knew it was already too late."
"And what makes you think that it's the right time now?"
"Come on, Hermione... I'm trying to apologise here..."
"Yes, well you're a couple of years too late for that. I won't allow you to walk into my life just as easily as you walked out. I don't need your apology anymore. I've moved on," she lied. The words weren't true: she hadn't moved on at all and her stomach still ached every time she thought about Fred. However, apart from the small bits and pieces she had gathered from the rest of the Weasley clan, Hermione didn't know a thing about his life travelling Europe, and she was planning on keeping it that way. She would never allow him to break her heart again.
Fred sent her a disappointed look. Clearly, he hadn't expected the night to go like this.
Hermione cleared her throat, "I think I'll go back to the others. Take care Fred, alright?"
"I'll owl you, yeah?" he said and shot Hermione a half-assed smile.
"Please don't," she said and turned around before he could change her mind.